Fun on the Fourth

My family got together at my parents house for a bit of fireworks on the fourth. Crystal brought the camera so I decided to play a bit. I'm pretty impressed with how some of them turned out.

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

So this weekend was my birthday. Not just any birthday but this was the first one of the the dreaded birthday milestones. The big 30! In light of that situation, Crystal has been planning what was officially dubbed as "Chad's Birthday Celebration" for the last year or so. She wouldn't let me in on the secret and despite having told several people what she had up her sleeve, it never got back to me.

So on Friday I left work early as instructed and we started to drive. We ended up driving for a few hours and the final destination was Moab. She then told me what my present was, and here it is....


The catch was that I only got to keep it for one day, but oh what a day we had!



The pictures just don't do justice to what it feels like to be in the jeep going up and down some of these rocks.



This was one of the trails that we went on. If you look carefully you can see it follow the sandstone fins into the distance.


Some of us weren't so happy about being in the Jeep all day, but 3 out of 4 ain't too bad.











We had an awesome day and way too much fun. We even did some hiking and enjoyed the warm weather. I'll post more later, but I was so excited about the best birthday present ever, that I had to post something now. Thanks Crystal!

Young at Heart....

Created by Train Horn

So apparently only teenagers are supposed to be able to hear this noise, but I heard it. I guess that means I'm still young. I tend to think that this is more of a test to tell who takes care of their hearing, but I did my fair share of loud music and shooting guns without hearing protection that I probably shouldn't be able to hear it. So let me know your results.

WORK < REWARD

One of the benefits of being a software engineer (a.k.a code monkey) is that I can do my job from pretty much any location. My new employer is fairly flexible and has told me that on occasion working from home is allowed. Sometime Friday night I injured my lower back and have been in pain since. This morning when I woke up I decided that it would be a good day to try out the work from home bit. Despite my initial reservations about not being able to get anything done, it went rather well. Let me tell you, writing code while sitting in a lazy boy, it’s not half bad. Crystal was even nice enough to bring me some crepes while I was working and they were eating their breakfast.

The best part happened in the late afternoon. Ben had just returned home from his cousin’s house and stormed down the stairs to where I was. He walked over to me and pointed to the mouse that I was using on the arm of the chair, and asked me to move it. Curious to see what he was plotting I moved it to the other side of the chair. Ben then proceeded to climb onto the chair, give me a hug and said, “I really love you Dad.” I love the fact that Ben is a loving child and expresses it often. Even though I think that I am just “faking it”, it’s times like this where I think I might be doing something right.

So all in all, I like having the option to work from home, but I don’t think that I would want to do it every day. Just on special days, which hopefully will be even more special with more hugs and kisses.

Work...Work..Work

I’ve been at my new job for a month now and things seem to be going pretty well. They haven’t fired me yet! I work with really nice people and I get along with all of them really well. About half of my team has been there six months or less, so I’m not the only new guy.

As for the job itself, I like it so far. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the company sells software solutions for retail businesses. (Customer List) While our main software suite is pretty flexible some of our customers wish to use a more customized interface. That is what my team does. We add functionality to the existing software to make it all fit together really nicely. For example, a auto lube chain, may get all of the functionality they want from out software for sales, inventory and employee scheduling, but they also want something that can track vehicle service history and provide a list of recommended services for a specific vehicle with specific mileage. So my team will take those requirements and create a system that will do what they want and tie it into the retail.net side of things.

We use java, which I used at Teltronics, so the language isn’t really too new, at least the basics of it. I used to have my own office with windows that overlooked Sugarhouse Park, now I’m in the basement of an old building. I went from covered parking to having to park in a lot a block away and walking to the building. Those are the big drawbacks, the positive side far outweighs the negative. The people I work with are great, I have good equipment to work on, we have quality procedures and QA people to help test, and I’m having fun sometimes.

In summary I have better benefits, better pay and a better environment. Teltronics taught me some good things, and it was a great stepping stone, but this job already seems to be better place and better for me. Plus I have done some good work already and feel like I am contributing to the project aka. I'm useful.

I would like to thank all of the little people...

I decided that I was going to write down a few things for which I am thankful. Maybe it’s the time of year that inspired me and maybe it’s just because I am feeling loved and glad for the happy things in my life, so here goes:

• I am very thankful for a wife who cares about me and sacrifices all of her time, energy and dreams to care for our family. I couldn’t do it and sometimes she makes it look easy.
• I am thankful for a family who brought me breakfast in bed.
• I am thankful for being able to enjoy a good football game, once in a while.
• I am thankful for two loving children who continue to love me in spite of all the mistakes that I make while trying to raise them.
• I am thankful for cooler weather, warm blankets, and children to snuggle with.
• I am thankful for all of my family (both sides) and their love and support of me.
• I am thankful for being healthy.
• I am thankful for good entertainment and friends to share it with.
• I am thankful for all of my friends who forgive me for not contacting them all of the time, but who know that I still love them.
• I am thankful for hugs and grandma’s who give them.
• I am thankful for love, and those who give and those who allow me to give it to them.

I am blessed with many things in my life, some large and some small, but I hope that I can try to be thankful for them all.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat....

Some of you may have heard that I was quite lucky in my new job search and I will be starting the new job tomorrow. I'm a little (or a lot) nervous but I think that I will be able to do the job. I think change always makes me a little nervous. It sounds like a good company, but I am sure that I will find out more in the days to come. The company name is Tomax and they do software for retail businesses. The location is pretty good, close to downtown and about six miles closer to home than the last job. (I am always in favor of shortening the commute.)

I can't help feeling that this is a process that I will need to get used to. I think that in the field of Software Engineering it is quite common to get a new job every few years. That seems weird to me but at the same time, perhaps a little exhilarating. Change is hard, but most hard things turn out to be good things in the end. So we'll just wait it out, raise our glasses and make a toast to the future. Hopefully it won't be happening again for at least a couple of more years.